Microsoft begins aggressive new Windows Phone campaign

SAN FRANCISCO--Ahead of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Microsoft has thrown down the ad gauntlet to its Android competition in a campaign it is calling "Smoked by Windows Phone."

The idea, which initially started at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas back in January, featured a Windows Phone representative by the name of Ben Rudolph, challenging people with Android phones to complete various tasks on their smartphone faster than he could using a Windows Phone device.

The video clips were uploaded to YouTube and went somewhat viral. Several of the videos have been viewed over 500,000 times on YouTube.

Microsoft has been attempting to build buzz around its mobile platform for almost a year, but so far, it has not managed to really win over consumers. The new campaign is designed to change that by taking the battle away from apps - or lack of them - towards speed, seamlessness of experience and functionality.

Microsoft said it would be taking the campaign to the next level, with 15 -30 second ads, bringing the challenge format to its Microsoft Stores and beyond.

As far as I understand, two primary cost drivers of a smartphone are processor and screen size. As you compare phones, the biggest the screen, the higher the price. Typically, new model will come out with a high price tag. I believe comparing phone shall go with price performance with some factors being locked, for example, same or very close screen size. Otherwise, we are comparing Apple to Orange.
The new Microsoft Mobile launched way after the success of Apple iPhone 3G and of Nexus One. Between Apple iPhone and Nexus One, Apple iPhone doesn't really get very popular until iPhone 3G which was launched in mid 2008, a year after the launching of iPhone. Nexus One used the best components available in the market, serving as a reference design to hardware vendors. Nexus One was launched in 2010, more than a year of initial release of Android OS.
Although Microsoft launched Microsoft CE 16 years ago, they haven't been able to get a considerable chunk of market share. Now, with the revamping of Windows Mobile, expectation from MS would be high. Given Nokia Lumia 710 has just been released. According to market wisdom, we will know whether the new OS will own some good piece of the market.

So my personal experience with a Windows Phone at CES wasn't just a fluke -- they really ARE fast!
This campaign is great, and just what MS needs to do to build up excitement and build up the "cool" factor for Windows Phone.
They still, however, need to find ways to get the apps developers on board and address that shortcoming.

A bit of a chicken and egg problem.
If the Windows phone gains some buzz, it would seem to me that app developers would create their same app also for Windows.
I don't put a lot of weight in the number of apps available for any particular type, because I figure that whatever becomes popular will soon get those same apps anyway.
Although I do realize that this is a very short term and fickle market we're talking about.

To continue browsing please reboot now.... LOL. Come on people, we all know how flakey Windows OS can be, so why would a WIndows Phone be reliable? Android, iOS and RIM are established players in the smartphone marketplace, it is simply marketing suicide for Windows to take all three on, head to head.

Yes it is true Microsoft has also started targeting the application developers to attract towards designing applications for Windows Mobile OS by offering free Windows Powered Mobile devices to the developers.

That logic would seem to be stuck in a classic catch 22 trap.
When the platform gets popular, app writers will start targeting the platform.
But surely the platform needs the apps to become popular?
That was not so much an issue in the past when apps were just a cute extra feature. Now, however, apps are a fundamental part of a smart phone. No apps - no smartphone!
Where MS falls down is that they have head-butted users and developers far too often. Each rev of the OS brings on huge changes and compatibility issues. MS have already started pushing WP 8 saying it is going to be better than, and different to, WP 7. So why would anyone: (a) want to buy a phone running a platform that is going to be obsoleted within a year or (b) want to write apps for an obsolete platform.